Soft Skins and Rough Skins: Hundertwasser's five skins in conversation with personal poetics

Abstract

This article presents an excerpt from the personal poetic production of the artist João Cóser, selected from the portfolio, and which covers five artistic works created between 2016 and 2020. The analysis of João Cóser's artistic process uses the concepts and symbologies about the skin, as constructed by the Austrian artist Hundertwasser, who defines five levels of coverings or skins for the human being: the epidermis, clothing, the home, the social environment and the global environment. The connections between the chosen poetic production and the works of other artists who deal with corporeality and the senses, such as Ernesto Neto, Chiharu Shiota and Hélio Oiticica, are also explored. The analysis also incorporates the phenomenology of the body, as developed by Merleau-Ponty and other authors who support the research. The tactile movement and manipulation of the object, whether of its visible or invisible materiality, are also addressed as prerogatives of the body.